Location: Lincoln & Louth Salary: £23,400 - £28,600 Hours: 37 Contract type: Fixed term End date: 31 March 2025 Closing Date: 26 April 2024 Interview Date: 7 May 2024 Barnardo's work in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council to deliver its Leaving Care Service for care experience young people aged 16-25.
We support, encourage, and empower care experienced young people to live independent lives. Knowledge of the risks worries and safeguarding concerns when working with Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking young people is desirable. Initial Specific Responsibilities
Supplementary Information
Further details and application documents here. Have you considered the possibility of fostering a sibling group? It can be a journey marked by both trials and triumphs. While it’s true that fostering siblings comes with its share of complexities, managing different personalities, addressing past traumas, and balancing individual needs, it’s also a profoundly rewarding experience. Witnessing the resilience and bond between siblings as they navigate life’s challenges together is nothing short of inspiring. One of our foster carers shared her experience of fostering two brothers for 3 years. “My journey as a foster carer for two brothers has been an eye-opening experience filled with highs and lows. Every day brings new lessons. From the very beginning, I knew fostering siblings would come with its unique set of hurdles. Helping them adjust to a new environment, addressing any past traumas, whilst managing their often-difficult relationship with each other, has been a delicate balancing act. Yet, seeing their resilience during what has been a difficult time, has been nothing short of inspiring. When they first arrived, the eldest had very little confidence in himself, he would hold his head low, often hiding himself with his hood up, and rarely removed his jacket. It almost felt that he was worn down, wanting to hide himself from everyone, avoiding them seeing him. Slowly but surely, his confidence grew. He went from not believing in himself, not even wanting to attempt to apply for Head Boy in school, to applying and being nominated. This was a proud moment for him, and for me. The youngest of the two struggled too. He had an insecure attachment, often seeking attachment wherever possible. This often resulted in unwanted behaviours, sometimes aimed at me, or his brother. With the support of Young People at Heart, I learnt more about therapeutic parenting approaches, in particular the PACE approach developed by Dan Hughes, and this enabled me to find ways to help him. I was able to find ways of connecting, before correcting, and providing lots of empathy and curiosity to every situation. I had to nurture him as if he was a toddler again to help fill the gaps he had missed in early life. Sure, there were times when disagreements arose, and moods flared, but it’s all part of the journey. Guiding them through these challenges and teaching them how to communicate and compromise has been both challenging and fulfilling. But amidst the tough times are countless moments of joy and connection. Whether it’s celebrating birthdays, cheering them on at sports events, or simply sharing stories around the dinner table, these moments remind me why I became a foster carer in the first place. Another challenge I faced was navigating family time with birth parents. Initially, I had attempted to gain a healthy, positive, and professional relationship with both birth parents, however, over time, it proved difficult. Often birth parents can understandably struggle with the care systems, they can feel decisions are unjust and struggle with the loss of the care of their children. At times, the frustration was unfortunately aimed at me. This was a difficult time; I wanted to maintain a good relationship as I knew this would be of most benefit to the boys. However, I eventually had to accept that this was not always going to be possible. Family time can often be a difficult time for the young people too. They are left with overwhelming feelings of guilt, and divided loyalties, not wanting to hurt their parent, nor their foster carer. It takes lots of reassurance and understanding to help them through. After 3 years, I have recently had the amazing experience of supporting and transitioning the boys back to their birth dad. Having been able to maintain a positive relationship with dad, and with the Local Authorities input, the decision was made for a careful transition plan for them to reunited. This was a special moment for everyone, me, the boys, and for dad. It makes my heart burst to know that the boys will live a life with their family. I have continued to keep in touch with the boys and their dad, offering him advice and support to ensure that reunification continues to be positive. I know caring for them can be challenging at times and recognise the importance of having invaluable support from people around you. Being there for these siblings through their ups and downs has been a privilege. Providing them with stability, love, and a sense of belonging has been my greatest reward. And as I watch them grow and flourish, I’m reminded that family isn’t just about blood, it’s about the bonds we create and the love we share. So, to anyone considering fostering siblings, know that while it may not always be easy, the impact you’ll make on their lives is immeasurable. Through the challenges and triumphs, you’ll be helping to shape and create a brighter future.” Source: www.youngpeopleatheart.org Sarah & Levi* reached a HUGE 10 years of fostering with The Children’s Family Trust. In order to celebrate the milestone and their incredible longevity, we gave them the keys to the website and asked them to blog exactly how fostering has developed, and any words of encouragement for those experiencing difficulties or struggling to make the first steps. We have been with CFT for 10 years now, our journey has taken many twists and turns over the years. The Pandemic was especially crazy in our household like many other across the world. Myself and Levi looked into fostering because we just wanted to help, that was it. The more children we could help the better. We saw CFT along with many other fostering agencies at Birmingham Pride. What they stood for and the fact that CFT is a Charity really stood out to us both. Witnessing the Trust grow and change over the years has helped us as well as many other fostering families grow too. Currently, we have one child in a long term placement with us, and we’re currently going through the “staying put” process now. Our lives have totally changed since being with CFT. It has been challenging however it has also been extremely fulfilling and enjoyable. The fact we have an amazing young person with us to share our journey is a bonus. We would highly recommend CFT to anyone who wants to foster or even just looking into it at the moment. Our advice to those thinking about becoming foster carers: Training – Attend as many training course as you can. Even if you dont have a child/ren in your care at that point. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to ask questions and speak to other carers, this will prepare you for when you do have a child/ren in your care. Champion Individuality – All children are different, what works for one child won’t work for another. It sounds simple iI know but simplicity is key. Utilise Available Support – Ask for help if you need it, what ever form that takes. Your Supervising Social Worker is there for this exact reason (as well as everything else they do too). The Application Process – The Form F is a very detailed application form that everyone has to do. It was for us, very thought provoking. This process will probably make you question some of your up bringing and also what sort of parent or carer you what to be. It won’t be the last time you question things as every training course you do will also have this effect in some way. Embrace the ability to look at something and think differently about it or look for something that can be changed moving forward. Be an Effective Advocate – Finally, the most important piece of advise we can give anyone is to listen to the child/ren in your care. You are their voice in meetings of any sort when they don’t have a voice / haven’t found it yet or don’t think anyone will listen. You are the one constant in their life that no matter what will fight for them and will be there as their safety net if they fall. In a lot of cases you are also going to be the person that shows them what a family is and how it feels, embrace this as a whole. It is hard to begin with and can be energy draining, it is also the best and most fulfilling feeling in the world. *Names have been changed to protect our carers identities. Source: thecft.org.uk/case-studies This month’s blog is a take-over by our Director of Operations on the Isle of Man Anne Seed. Anne also chairs the EDI focus group, made up of members of staff from across the charity and provides an overview of the work undertaken to date… At St Christopher`s we are aspiring to become an ever increasingly inclusive organisation where diversity in all its forms is recognised and celebrated, whilst discrimination and oppression is identified and tackled. Values drive behaviours, and behaviours drive culture. We are on a journey at the charity in relation to EDI and we are learning all the time. We want to ensure that equality is embedded in all of our activities and policies. We want to create a sense of belonging at St Christopher’s to attract and retain talented people. Crucially we want to hear everyone`s voice and respond to their needs. Our EDI strategy was approved by Trustees in November 2022 with a 3 year implementation plan and our EDI pledge was debuted to all staff members for sign up by Zero Discrimination Day on 1st March 2023. Our EDI Project Board has been established at a senior level in the organisation to lead on the strategy and our associated EDI Focus Group (made up of managers and staff members) takes responsibility for how the strategy can and will be implemented. The focus group and project board work alongside each other and there is a two way communication process. The EDI Focus Group meets every month for 2 hours (protected time) and advises the project board on aspects of the strategy. We are almost at the end of year 1 of the implementation plan and this year the group have been addressing communication and engagement in a variety of ways. They are committed to working with any staff members who identify with one or more of the protected characteristics within the Equality Act. The group have been instrumental in the production of a variety of great initiatives and actions. These include the pledge, a review of our paternity policy and implementation of a menopause policy. Similarly the group has shown commitment and sought out learning to support, working with transgender young people, celebrating black history month, the charity being accredited as a disability confident employer. We have also made inroads in creating support/network groups that are our people want, as well as feeding in to the charity’s inclusivity priority in the next 5 year strategic plan. Resources and information are shared on our intranet to enable any staff member to have access and utilise them. Our EDI focus group members also make themselves available for anyone wishing to share any issues, concerns or comments or to ask the group to have a discussion about a relevant EDI matter that is important. In year 2 starting in April, we will be continuing our work we have already started in year 1 as well as looking at the objectives in the implementation plan for year 2 around training and continuous learning. The group will be celebrating pride month and Black history month as well as raising awareness, with the assistance of our communications team, around other important EDI events happening throughout the year. We want to develop more focus on young people and how to involve them i.e. how we introduce EDI to children and young people when they move into a home or service, the language we use, the literature they are given. With this, we will be tackling the issue of how to support managers and staff members when young people make discriminatory remarks/comments and help make them more aware of the impact they are having and educate their views. We are encouraged by the organisation’s commitment to EDI and will continue to strive towards an inclusive and welcoming place to work, as well as a nurturing and supporting environment for the children and young people in our care. Source: www.stchris.org.uk/ This morning (26 March), our Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager Lucy Croxton gave evidence to the Education Committee at Parliament as a part of a panel on children’s social care. The panel provided evidence on why costs related to children’s social care are rising; how need is not necessarily being addressed at the right stage in the social care journey; and the increasing complexity in needs and a lack of suitable provision for these children. Discussions also centred around profiteering in children’s social care and how a lack of homes is leading to out of area placements. Lucy championed a need for children in the care system or who have experienced care to have a voice in, not only their own homes, but also in a wider context of national policy - where people with lived experience of the care system have a chance to affect government policy around children’s social care. Alongside this, she also discussed the need for collaboration between care providers in the voluntary sector where vast amounts of knowledge can be shared. She also spoke about the barriers of entry to providers opening new residential homes for children and the issues these can cause in terms of providers moving to semi-independent homes where there have been problems in terms of quality of care. She gave evidence gathered from young people we have supported who have previously experienced semi-independent homes and the negative impact that these placements have had. Alongside Lucy, the panel also included John Pearce – President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services; Roger Gough - Children’s Services Spokesperson, County Councils Network; Stuart Ashley - Director of Children’s Services, Hampshire County Council; Dan Turnbull, Senior Director for Markets, Competitions and Markets Authority; Mr Andrew Isaac – Chair of Children’s Services Development Group and Dr Mark Kerr. To find out more about our campaigning work and where we stand on a number of issues, visit: https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/campaigning
Source: www.togethertrust.org.uk/news/ One of the areas of Fair Ways’ 5-year strategy was to review our Corporate Identity. It’s important to do this regularly as all organisations undergo change, and Fair Ways has certainly seen significant changes in the past few years. Our most visible change is that we are now a charity, ensuring we reinvest all our surplus funds into the organisation. We are on the way to becoming a trauma-informed organisation. We are larger than before with circa 420 employees, and we deliver more and better services to more individuals than we did 5 years ago. Some areas remain unchanged. Our values remain constant, our culture remains strong and our belief in the fundamentals of care, education & training and employee support is unwavering. Over the past year, a working group from across Fair Ways has reviewed our identity and any required changes. This group recently presented three key recommendations to the Board, which were approved as follows:
Vision To build a community that changes lives, makes a difference to society, and leaves a legacy greater than ourselves and our contributions. Mission To grow a compassionate, resilient, and trauma-informed community, that embraces learning, so that we improve the lives and outcomes of individuals. These statements are agreed upon by the CEO and MD. The working group advised that the existing Vision statement term ‘institution’ was viewed negatively and that the term ‘Community’ was much more reflective of who we are and represents our charitable status as a Community Benefit Society. A typical mission statement describes how an organisation gets to its vision. The working group recommended greater detail was required in our mission statement. As a result, the CEO and MD have restated the Vision and Mission statements for Fair Ways as above. Going forward, these statements will now be used across our website, our policies, training and marketing materials, and guide our strategic planning processes. The working group has identified that new team members can be put off by the scale of Fair Ways services and the many terms we use. It also identified that employees can struggle to clearly articulate what we do, but also that there are terms that we commonly use that are not found elsewhere. In fact, there is a shared language that is very much part of our identity. Examples are found throughout PRINT and RiiSE.
Going forward, we will now gather this language and introduce it in our Induction courses, our Management and other training, and incorporate it into Policies and other communications. Later this year we will launch the first list of commonly used terms and offer all employees the opportunity to add to this Fair Ways language as we go forwards. Source: www.fairways.co/ TACT are once again disappointed at the lack of recognition for fostering families that came through in last week’s Spring Budget. TACT CEO Andy Elvin has commented below: “The UK is facing an unprecedented crisis in foster carer recruitment. If this is not addressed it is going to cost LA’s hundreds of millions of pounds over the next few years. The paltry response of the Department for Education to this has been to fund a small ‘pathfinder’ carer recruitment project in the North East that will have negligible effect. The budget was a chance to do something transformative such as forgiving council tax for all registered foster carers. However, it is abundantly clear that foster families and children in care generally are in no way a meaningful priority for government. Over recent years we have seen a revolving door of children’s ministers & no concerted and properly funded approach to enacting the recommendations of the Independent Care Review that they commissioned”. As the largest dedicated fostering charity in the UK, TACT, not only have we been helping to provide loving homes for vulnerable children for more than 30 years – we are also a voice for foster carers & children in care. We will continue to seek to influence public policy around care across the UK and use our considerable expertise and experience as a service provider to campaign for positive change. Source: www.tactcare.org.uk/ Transferring from the local authority, we had heard many horror stories about leaving a local authority and going to a private fostering agency. However, we were desperate for a fresh start with an agency where we would feel supported and cared about after experiencing some challenging times with the local authority. The reason we chose to transfer over to Young People at Heart was simply down to the response and information we received during our initial visit with them. We had spoken with various agencies, but we didn’t get a “feel” from them like we did with Young People at Heart. When we had our initial visit at home, they made us feel empowered, worthwhile and proud to be foster carers which we had somewhat lost in recent times. We knew immediately that Young People at Heart were who we wanted to be a part of. Despite having our young person already living with us, the assessment process was simple, flexible and relaxed. We always felt supported and felt able to ask questions along the way. There were a few occasions where we had to cancel and change our assessment sessions due to circumstances with our young person. Young People At Heart were understanding and supportive of this and offered us help and advice at these times. Once we had completed our assessments, we went to panel. Although we had been to panel with the local authority, it is still a nerve-wracking experience. However, the Young People at Heart panel made us feel relaxed and very welcome to be there. They showed a great interest in us as foster carers and as people and we were met with praise and heart-warming comments about the progress our young person had made since being with us. Since transferring to Young People at Heart, our fostering journey has been transformed. As foster carers, we have become part of a family. We have gained friends who have become a valuable part of our support network. We had never connected with other foster carers and this was a new experience for us. We regularly attend the coffee mornings and catch up with both staff and other foster carers of Young People at Heart. The difference we have also experienced is a different world of support from our supervising social worker. We know that we can call or text and will get a response very quickly. We have had a totally different experience of being supported and feeling as though we can rely on Young People at Heart supervising social workers to help us achieve things for our young person and successfully advocate for them. For our young person, they have seen a totally different view of being in foster care. Up until transferring to Young People at Heart, our young person only saw being in foster care as a negative thing. They have now had access to many opportunities and experiences they never thought they would do. They enjoy seeing the Young People at Heart family and have made lots of new friends they see regularly thanks to the social work assistants. In September, we all attended the Young People at Heart birthday event. Our young person wrote their review for Young People at Heart and on the part where they were to write what they had enjoyed, our young person wrote “making new friends”. They have since asked for play dates with the young people they met. In December, we attended the pantomime with Young People at Heart. Our young person stated afterwards, “you didn’t say we were going to the pantomime with all of those guys. Can we come again next year? And can you ask when we can all meet up again please?” For our young person, this is something we never thought we’d hear and we know they feel part of a family just as much as we do. To show you exactly the impact Young People at Heart have had on us, we attended our young persons looked after review. Our young person was asked to scale his life on a scale of 1 to 10. Our young person, for the first time in 3 years, rated his life at a 10. Our young person would not have been able to rate his life at a 10 without the help, support, love and experiences that Young People at Heart have provided us with. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts. Source: www.youngpeopleatheart.org/ The main reason many people foster with an agency over the Local authority is the better levels of support that agencies can provide. The fostering network states “The level of support – especially practical – is often higher with an agency than an LA. They have a better ratio of supervising social workers to foster carers so one is usually available to step in, if necessary, in an emergency and offer hands-on support, for example, by collecting a child from school” At Fair Ways, we find not only does fostering with an agency mean the practical support is better but also the emotional support is improved, due to the better relationships the Supervising Social Workers can build with the foster carers, their families and the young people in their care. These relationships are generally better with Supervising social workers due to them having a lower case load ratio and agencies having better staff retention rates. Fostering with an agency also means we work with a number of local authorities not just one. This improves the matching process to ensure the best compatibility with your family and birth children or any other foster children you may be already looking after. Although allowances vary, agencies do generally pay their foster carers a higher allowance than the local authorities. At Fair Ways, we know foster carers are financially better off fostering with us than the 5 main local authorities in our area. Source: www.fairways.co/ Could you help steer and govern a leading, high profile and dynamic East Anglian charity to new heights? Are you committed to improving young lives? If so, we have an exciting opportunity to join our organisation as a Trustee (voluntary position). We are particularly seeking to recruit to the Board applicants with expertise in one of the following:
What we are looking for: We are seeking to recruit three trustees with different areas of expertise who are committed to helping us to deliver our vision and mission. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our Board and making sure we best reflect the young people and families we serve. For this reason, we would particularly welcome applications from:
This is an opportunity to join an experienced and dedicated Trustee Board, working alongside a professional and skilled Senior Management Team that lead an agile and highly qualified workforce, to give the very best care to each young person in our services. As a Break trustee you will:
About Break Break is a forward-thinking non-profit organisation that’s delivered unique support for young people across East Anglia for over fifty years. Co-production with staff, young people and families is at the very heart of everything we do. We have a range of residential services, a family assessment centre, a fostering agency, Staying Close, Staying Connected and services for disabled children and their families. As a trauma-informed organisation, all our young people and employees are supported by our highly skilled therapeutic team - and our lifelong offer means that even when young people leave our care, we will always be there for them. With low staff turnover and vacancy rates, we have over 90% good and outstanding gradings across our services and deliver great outcomes for our young people. Our ambition is to grow and build even further - creating an environment where people can develop their talent and see the difference they make. Break employs around 450 staff and 900 volunteers, the majority of the latter in its shops. The staff are located primarily in Norfolk, with the main administrative offices in Norwich. Break is Investors in People gold accredited and has featured in the Times Best Companies list. Break has an exceptional training provision for internal and external customers that has a reputation for being interactive, innovative and of high quality and is leading the social pedagogy agenda within the region. You could be part of making amazing things happen. Change the Lives of Young People Leaving Care with Break - YouTube Please include a covering letter stating why you would like to a Trustee for Break with your application. If you are interested and would like an informal chat with our Chair, in the first instance, please contact Charlotte Johnston (charlotte.johnston@break-charity.org) who will arrange a discussion with the Chair. Full details and application documents here |
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